


No Longer Hollow

by CrossingTheFourthWall



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: (and some Hojo and Sephiroth-shaped ones), First foray into FFVII -- let's see how I do, Gen, One-Shot, but I'm content with where it is for now, dunno if I'm gonna continue this or not, lotsa headaches for Cloud, mostly Zack-shaped headaches, will have to think about it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:49:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24339184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrossingTheFourthWall/pseuds/CrossingTheFourthWall
Summary: While taking some time to recover from the fight on Midgar's highway -- both physically and mentally -- Cloud comes across someone who he'd long thought dead.
Comments: 26
Kudos: 140





	No Longer Hollow

**Author's Note:**

> *peers in* Hello, don't mind me, I'm just someone who's recently jumped into the FFVII fandom head-first. XD I don't have the remake *yet,* but I have started to play through the original on my Switch. I am aware of what happens in the new game, but all that does is make me more eager to actually get it.
> 
> Aaaanyway, I decided to write this one-shot after listening to "Hollow" more than a few times in the last week. It's been described as Cloud's song, apparently, and I wanted to write something that wasn't completely painful in order to counteract the grief that the melody holds. I dunno if I succeeded in that or not, but I am satisfied with what I've written, so there.

They’d set up camp not far from Midgar – just out of sight of the city, in the hopes that they wouldn’t be seen by anything or anyone who might want to make them so full of holes a single breath would have wheezed out in every direction. It may be day now, but they’d been fighting all night against robed shadows and a one-winged monster, and Aerith had put her foot down on traveling further. Something about terrible weather and wanting to get used to there being an actual sky above her head.

Tifa had agreed, Barret had gone along with it, and Red had decided to volunteer himself for watch around the tent they’d somehow managed to get up. Aerith was more prepared than she looked, for someone who had never set foot outside of Midgar’s slums.

That had left Cloud, restless after that confrontation with Sephiroth, prowling the desert landscape around them in case any monsters or soldiers – capitalized or otherwise – happened to stumble across them.

_“Seven seconds till the end. Time enough for you, perhaps. But what will you do with it, I wonder?”_

Cloud shook Sephiroth’s words out of his head. Mulling over that wasn’t going to do him any good. Whatever it was, it could wait. They needed to get to the next city when they were recovered from that crazy fight with the Whispers, and then figure out their next move from there.

Like how to stop Sephiroth when they didn’t know what his next move was.

Cloud stepped around the mesa that they were hiding behind and caught sight of Midgar in the distance. Something about the sight of the city from this distance was familiar, but he wasn’t sure how. An itching sort of feeling settled at the back of his head, strange and familiar and not _at all_ comfortable.

He half-expected some Sephiroth vision to pop up and start harassing him again, but the feeling was gone before he could even start reaching for his head.

Cloud shook his head and turned away, looking to the horizon. No signs of anything moving, but—

“Spikey?”

A chill ran down Cloud’s spine as the sensation of a headache attack came back full-force at the voice. He whirled sharply, trying to find where the voice had come from—

Glowing blue eyes met eyes of the same, in a face framed by spiky black hair rather than blond. The purple, sleeveless turtleneck the stranger was wearing didn’t look familiar, but the style was the same.

“It _is_ you!” Delight crossed the other’s face even as Cloud’s own mind started to rebel against him. The headache was getting more insistent, more _painful,_ and Cloud wasn’t able to ignore the visions it gave him so well.

_Shouts and gunfire – “Come and get it!” – rain falling, crawling on elbows to reach him – need to help need to help can’t die here please no – “You are my living legacy.”_

Cloud _screamed_ as the headache overtook him, and he dropped to his knees as his hands gripped his head. If the stranger – no, stranger with a friend’s face – no, _living, breathing, alive_ friend – said anything, Cloud couldn’t hear him, much less respond.

The headache and memories hit him hard and fast, similar to Sephiroth’s fighting style, but not the same, not quite. It felt like Barret was pounding his fist into Cloud’s head, rapid-fire like the bullets from his gun.

_Oh Goddess this hurt._

The pain made him bend over double as the figure in front of him shouted in alarm. Cloud couldn’t make out what it was he was saying, with the headache pounding new visions into his skull. He couldn’t tell if they were memories or hallucinations or something else, but they _all_ involved this black-haired young man in front of him.

_-motorcycle riding in sidecar- “Me? Gongaga.” – “We drag our asses all this way….” – a reactor, something unnerving inside – “Why’d you put the helmet back on?” – “Cloud!”_

Someone was holding him tightly in an attempt at a hug. Strong, but not strong enough to bruise or break his ribs. Not anymore, anyway.

The visions started to solidify into something, only creating more headaches. Moments ago, Cloud could have _sworn_ he’d done the things this stranger-ally-friend was doing, but now he wasn’t so sure.

He grabbed the purple turtleneck the other was wearing, first. The fabric felt solid under his gloved hands, and not full of holes.

Real. Actually, honestly, real.

“You okay, Cloud?” The friend’s – the SOLDIER’s – _Zack’s_ voice was coming through clearer, now. The headache was fading, but the memories and the pain they brought with them remained.

Cloud lunged for a proper hug. Zack didn’t move, didn’t dissolve under his arms as Cloud buried his face in the crook of Zack’s neck. “I thought you were _dead._ You – you—”

“I know.” Zack adjusted his arms, hugging Cloud back. “I thought I was too, for a bit.”

Zack’s voice – quiet and shaken, not loud and energetic – seemed to make something snap in Cloud.

If Zack’s turtleneck got wet, he didn’t seem to mind. It was starting to rain a little, anyway.

“Cloud!”

Cloud blinked. Wait, that was—

He quickly reined in his emotions and pulled back from Zack’s shoulder, surprising his friend.

“What’s going on?” Tifa came around the mesa behind Cloud – he could hear her cadence of quick footsteps as she approached. “I heard you – who is that? Cloud?”

Cloud pulled out of the hug, but he kept a hand on Zack’s shoulder as he looked back at Tifa. No way in _hell_ was he going to let Zack slip away.

He was about to answer Tifa’s question as the others followed after her when Zack answered for him.

“Just an old friend.” Zack’s cheery smile faded as he looked Tifa over. “Wait, I remember…you were in Nibelheim! The guide to the reactor!”

Tifa was startled by the memory, which only made Cloud wince a little at his own. “ _Zack?”_

“Hey, you remembered!” Zack grinned brightly. “Glad to see you’re okay!”

 _“Zack?”_ Aerith stepped forward now, and Zack’s grin dropped. Cloud found himself looking between the two of them, at the serious look on Aerith’s face and the quickly saddening expression on Zack’s. They knew each other?

Wait. Hadn’t Aerith said—

“Aerith?” Zack blinked. “You…wh-what are you _doing_ out here? I thought you said the sky scared you.”

“Why didn’t you answer any of my letters?”

Aerith’s terse question made Tifa look to Aerith with sharp surprise. “You know him too?”

Aerith turned to look at Tifa with a soft smile. “He was my first love.”

That almost made Cloud wince. She’d said something like that before, hadn’t she? In the playground in Sector 6?

“Was?” Zack looked hurt. “Okay, _maybe_ I deserve that, but it wasn’t my fault. I _wanted_ to come back, Aerith, I _swear,_ but –”

“But what?” Aerith turned to look at him as Red and Barret settled around Tifa and Aerith, staring down Zack like he was a monster they might have to cut down. Cloud glared back at them both, but while Red seemed to get the message and relaxed, Barret did _not._

Zack tilted his head slightly, saddened and guarded in a way that spoke of the experiences he had seen. Happy and over-energetic he could be, but he’d had to learn to be serious, too.

“It’s…a _very_ long story,” Zack said finally.

Judging by the headache Cloud had, it _was_ a long story. One that he wasn’t completely capable of remembering. All that mattered to _him_ at this point was that Zack was alive, and _not_ gunned down by a Shinra shooting squad.

“Cloud…didn’t tell you, I bet.” Zack reached over and squeezed Cloud’s shoulder. “Lighten up on the grip, Spikey, I’m not going anywhere.”

“Tell us what?” Barret frowned. “And who the hell are you, anyway?”

Zack looked up at the question, then smiled cheerily. “Who, me? I’m Zack Fair, ex-SOLDIER First Class.”

 _That_ got Barret’s attention immediately. Cloud watched with narrowed eyes as he almost brought his machine gun-arm up. The fact that he was sitting between Barret and Zack seemed to dissuade him, if only for a moment.

“What the hell is it with us runnin’ inta ex-SOLDIERs?” Barret demanded. “First Cloud, now you?”

“He told you that?” Zack frowned at Cloud. “Cloud, buddy, you may have the eyes for it, but you didn’t make it in, remember?”

Cloud frowned at the question, then winced and shook his head as the headache flared. Zack noticed and frowned.

“Hey, uh….you guys have a spot nearby we can talk?” Zack asked. “Something tells me we have to catch up.”

“You first, Stamp,” Barret replied.

“Yeesh, you’re really not a fan, are you.” Zack started to rise. “Well, not that I blame you. I’ve got my issues with them, too.”

Cloud’s grip tightened on Zack, pulling him back down. “No.” He didn’t want to let Zack out of his sight _at all._

“Hey, buddy, I’m just goin’ to your camp. I’m not going anywhere.” Zack grabbed Cloud’s arm and pulled Cloud up with the sort of ease that only came from a SOLDIER. “Come on. I’m not gonna leave your sight, I promise.”

Cloud frowned, but relented, instead slipping under one of Zack’s arms and grabbing him in a one-armed hug. The two of them standing together like this felt familiar, somehow. Comforting.

And it meant that Zack wasn’t going to bolt.

“Cloud, are you all right?” Tifa asked.

Cloud nodded. “I’m fine.

“I think he’s just going into shock a bit,” Zack said. “I don’t mind the hugging, really. It’s a nice reversal from how it was for…a while.”

Aerith frowned at them.

“It would be better if we discussed this in a place we know to be safe,” Red spoke up suddenly. “I believe Tifa’s meal will be burnt if we stay here much longer.”

Zack suddenly looked hopeful at the prospect of food. Of course he would; SOLDIERs were one-man armies and ate like ones, too.

Cloud snorted, getting a grin from Zack.

“Is the food any good?” Zack asked, hopeful.

“As best as it can be,” Tifa replied. “Come on. It’ll be better if we talked about this over _something.”_

\------------

“So!” Aerith sat down as Tifa scrambled to save the food she’d been cooking. “What happened? Why didn’t you come back?”

Cloud _really_ didn’t want to be the one to answer that. His head was still pounding from the headache Zack being _alive_ had brought, and he didn’t feel willing to answer anything the others might ask.

He felt Zack sigh under his arm and adjusted his hug slightly. Zack noticed and ruffled Cloud’s hair.

“Stop it,” Cloud grumbled.

“Only if you let me go, Spikey,” Zack replied with a grin. “I’m not going anywhere, I promise.”

Cloud didn’t believe him. The last time he’d let Zack out of his sight, much less his grip, Zack had _died._ No way in hell was he going to let _that_ happen again.

Zack seemed to get the message that Cloud wasn’t going to let go anytime soon, and sighed and shook his head. “Well, uh…what, four, five years ago? I got called away on a mission to Nibelheim. Something about the reactor, I think?”

Tifa nodded.

“Hey, wait.” Barret shifted, frowning. “Isn’t that your hometown?”

“I – yeah.” Tifa paused to tuck a loose lock of hair behind one ear and get back to the skillet that was sitting in the campfire. “Yeah. I was the guide that took them up the mountain to where the reactor was.”

“Them?”

“Me an’ Cloud an’ Sephiroth,” Zack supplied.

Cloud stiffened slightly as his headache spiked a little. The others did, too, but for different reasons. Zack definitely noticed, since he moved his hand from Cloud’s head to his back.

“He wasn’t…kooky, back then.” Zack said. “Not _yet,_ anyway. We found something in the reactor and he went into the mansion Shinra owned up there. Researched a bunch of stuff for about a _week_ and came out of it talking about his mother.”

 _That_ sent a chill down Cloud’s spine, but he wasn’t sure why. He remembered…something happening in the Shinra building, before being stuck in the Drum with Hojo, but he couldn’t remember the details. Something told him he didn’t want to.

His head pounded. Right, focus on Zack. Alive, _here_ Zack.

He listened to Zack with half an ear, not really feeling like reliving the experience of seeing Sephiroth burn down his entire hometown and kill his mother. Zack’s presence was already giving him a headache, and it had a lot more to do with his SOLDIER memories than anything else. He wasn’t sure why, and now didn’t feel like a very good time to ask.

Just focus on Zack being here, alive, and _not going anywhere._

“…I didn’t think Cloud was there,” Tifa said weakly.

“Hm?” Zack blinked. “Oh. Yeah, he was there. Had motion sickness the whole copter ride over, right, buddy?” He looked down at Cloud.

At least, there was something that his memories were starting to settle into agreement on. Cloud nodded.

“Oof, you still recovering from the mako poisoning there, buddy?”

“Just a headache,” Cloud grumbled. “I’m fine.”

He didn’t need to look to know Zack was frowning at him.

“Mako poisoning?” Tifa’s voice started rising in alarm.

“I’m _fine,”_ Cloud said. He was, really. If the headaches would go away.

“Yeah. Cloud was one of the infantry guys we brought along. He was trying for SOLDIER, but he hadn’t gotten in.”

Cloud did his best to hide the wince as his headache spiked.

Tifa’s eyes widened. “Then… _you_ were the one who kept me out of the reactor! But…why’d you—”

“Couldn’t keep the promise,” Cloud muttered. He wasn’t sure why that had come out, but it did. Maybe having Zack nearby was having an effect on his memories?

Tifa gasped softly. “Oh, Cloud….”

“What was goin’ wrong with the reactor?” Barret was frowning at the two of them.

“Don’t remember.” Zack shrugged and shook his head. “It’s been _years,_ man. All I remember are the pods with monsters in them and Sephiroth asking if he was more like them than he was like a regular person. Week later, Nibelheim’s burning up and I found Sephiroth standing in front of some kinda mutated monster, calling it _Mother.”_ He grimaced. “Tried to take him on, but I couldn’t finish him off. Cloud caught up by then, and I asked him to finish the job.”

“I did.” Cloud remembered _that_ clearly enough, even before the headaches had been a problem. The scar in his chest from Sephiroth’s sword was already enough of a reminder. “Threw him into the reactor.”

“There, see?”

“But then, _how’s he back from the dead?”_

Barret, asking the big questions here.

Zack tightened his grip on Cloud. “What? But—”

“We ran into him in Shinra’s headquarters,” Tifa explained. “He…he murdered the president, and almost killed Barret.” She looked at Barret with a worried expression, but the big man brushed off her concern with a wave of his hand.

“He left with…something terrible,” Aerith said carefully.

“The thing from Nibelheim,” Cloud said. His memories were settling back into place properly, now, and he remembered stabbing the Buster sword through Sephiroth and into that _monster’s_ container.

“…that _thing_ was in _Midgar?”_ Zack’s voice had gone steely cold. “Hojo must have moved it when—” He cut himself off with a shake of his head. “Nevermind. Don’t worry about it.”

“No, tell us,” Red spoke up.

Zack eyed the talking quadruped. Cloud found it interesting that Zack _hadn’t_ freaked about the talking animal. “Ya sure?”

“I think you will find that some of us have some…experience, with dealing with Hojo.” Red was being careful with his words, but the snarl in them was plainly heard.

Cloud looked up at Zack as Zack scanned the group. He paused on Red’s tattoo and on Cloud, but his gaze didn’t move to Aerith until she quietly cleared her throat.

Zack sat a little straighter as he and Aerith looked at each other. “Aerith…?”

“He didn’t get to do anything to me,” Aerith assured. “But…he probably would have done something, if Cloud hadn’t come to my rescue.” She gave Cloud an encouraging smile as Zack looked at him sharply.

Cloud averted his gaze. “She’s an Ancient, Zack.” Zack probably wouldn’t know about their proper name. Cetra.

“Yeah, a Turk told me that. Kinda wonder what happened to Cissnei, come to think of it.” Zack tilted his head slightly, then shook his head. “I’m glad he got you out of there. Dunno if Cloud remembers, but…well, let’s just say that we don’t want to end up his test subjects _again_ anytime soon.”

 _That_ brought on another round of headaches as the others stared in increasing alarm.

Focus on Zack. Focus on Zack.

“That’s why Cloud had mako poisoning, by the way,” Zack added. “Although, now that he’s better, he could have gotten into SOLDIER easy, probably could’ve gotten to First Class, even. He’s got the strength for it.”

Cloud felt Zack tap one of his arms, but he didn’t let up on the hug. Zack could take a hug from a First, being a First himself.

“Had to drag his comatose ass from Nibelhim and all the way here,” Zack added. “That took nine months. I got your last letter then, Aerith. I’m _really_ sorry I wasn’t able to find a way back sooner.”

“I understand,” Aerith replied. There was a shaky inflection in her voice. She understood _now,_ but not a few minutes ago.

“Cloud….” Tifa looked so concerned as she tried to lock eyes with him. He met her gaze for a second, then looked away quickly.

The headaches he was getting brought snippets of memories with them that he did _not_ want to remember right now.

Zack seemed to sense that. He pulled Cloud closer. “Hey. We’re out of there. Things are gonna be fine.” He paused. “Well, Sephiroth apparently can’t _stay dead,_ but hey, we’re all together and okay, right? So, who’s gonna tell me what you guys have been up to?”

Cloud tightened his hug on Zack. There was still something that Zack hadn’t explained yet, and Cloud wanted _answers._ “How are you still here? I – I saw—”

Zack squeezed Cloud back. “Couple’a locals found me bleeding out. They took me to Kalm and helped me get back on my feet.” He smiled. “I’ve been doing merc work out there for a _while._ They like me there, and they’ll like you, too.”

“Mm. Did that in Midgar.”

“Really?” Zack laughed. “That’s awesome, Spikey! I bet you’re a natural for it.”

“He certainly is,” Tifa agreed. “He actually helped us out on a job a while back….”

Cloud didn’t need to listen to Tifa recount how everything had gone from decent to terrible in the span of a few days. He spent more time trying to mentally shake off the headache and the memories that Zack had brought with him. Most of them were covered in a green haze, but there were some things that were clearer than others.

And all of them involved Zack talking to him, dragging him around and the like.

“Cloud fell through the church roof,” Aerith said, pulling Cloud out of his thoughts. “That’s how I met him.”

Zack burst out laughing. “Oh, man! What a way to meet an angel, huh, Cloud? Are you trying to mimic me now?”

Cloud frowned. “No.”

“You fell through the roof, too?” Tifa asked.

“Yup! I thought I’d woken up in heaven when I saw her face. Turns out I’d just fallen out of Reactor 5 and caught her by surprise.” Zack laughed and rubbed the back of his head. “Man, that was…a nice surprise, after everything.”

“Mm.” Aerith nodded, her expression going a little sad.

“I met Cloud after I met Aerith, by the way,” Zack added. “On that mission to Modeoheim, remember?”

Cloud didn’t remember, really, but he nodded anyway. The headache was starting to actually _go away,_ which was a good thing.

“He was the only one who could keep up with me on the mountain trails. Turns out we’re both country boys!” Zack was grinning that bright smile of his.

“Where you from, then?” Barret leaned forward.

“Gongaga.”

Cloud snorted.

“You did the exact same thing when I said that the first time, too!” Zack ruffled Cloud’s hair again. “Not like Nibelheim was any better, Spikey. After all, where we’re from, if it’s just a reactor—”

“There’s nothing else out there,” Cloud finished on instinct. His laugh was quiet compared to Zack’s uproarious one, but he still got looks from the others. Wide-eyed stares, mainly, but they quickly turned into something else. He wasn’t in the mood to identify it.

Tifa started handing out breakfast as Zack asked, “So, what happened after Cloud fell through your roof like a fallen angel?”

Cloud put a little more focus into the recounting from there, as Tifa and Aerith glossed over the information they’d gotten from Corneo, quickly leading to how the plate was dropped on Sector 7. Aerith only briefly met Cloud’s gaze during the bit about Sector 6, but thankfully, she didn’t mention anything about the damn disguise he’d had to put on. Tifa also didn’t mention it, which was a godsend.

He didn’t know _what_ Zack would think of that whole scenario, much less _Barret._ He definitely didn’t _want_ to know, either.

The headache was almost gone by this point, and Cloud was more than certain that Zack was holding to his promise to not go anywhere, so he relaxed his one-armed hug slightly. He put his head on Zack’s shoulder instead. He knew the larger SOLDIER wasn’t going anywhere if he was being used as a support, and the rapid-fire headaches were making Cloud feel like he didn’t want to get up and walk around anytime soon.

“I should go back to Midgar and wring Tseng’s neck for putting you in danger like that,” Zack said to Aerith. “He should know better than to do that, _especially_ after—” He cut himself off and shook his head.

“Hojo’s higher on my shit list,” Cloud muttered. He felt Zack shift next to him as he continued in a whisper that could only be picked up by SOLDIER-grade hearing, “He wanted to make Aerith have kids with a SOLDIER.”

Zack stiffened. “Okay, yeah, Hojo’s _definitely_ getting his ass handed to him for that.”

“We didn’t know at the time how bad Hojo was, except for Cloud,” Tifa said. “He said ‘we’re all numbers and meat to him,’ which…now that you’ve explained, it makes a lot more sense.”

“He was like that _before_ we got caught.” Zack waved a hand. “He liked picking apart and improving on everything he could get his hands on, _including_ Sephiroth. Guy had an unhealthy obsession with him.”

The others shifted uncomfortably.

“Anyway, so you got Aerith and got out of there, right?”

“Y-yeah.” Tifa nodded. “A-and Sephiroth killed President Shinra right in front of us before we were able to get out.”

“You’d a thunk they wouldn’t keep their show floor cars with full tanks of gas,” Barret remarked. “Or that Cloud’d be so good with a motorcycle.”

“Basic training,” Cloud muttered.

“Yeah, but when you’ve got a sword?”

Cloud scowled. Were they _really_ questioning his ability _now?_ “We got out of there alive, didn’t we?”

Barret grumbled something Cloud didn’t bother to focus on hearing. Probably another string of curses.

“When we got on the highway –“ Tifa gasped. “Oh, right! We haven’t told Zack about the Whispers yet!”

“Whispers?” Zack frowned.

“The will of the planet,” Red explained. “Ghosts in robes that keep events on their destined path.”

“We’ve been running into them since the morning of the Reactor 5 bombing,” Tifa explained. “They’ve been…keeping us from being able to do a lot of things. Sephiroth too, I think. He didn’t seem to like them much, either.”

“Sephiroth won’t listen to them,” Aerith said with worry. “The planet’s cries are just rain rolling off his back. He wants to….” She trailed off and shook her head.

“He ripped a portal open in a bunch of ‘em, so we took off after him.” Barret scratched his head. “I, uh…I _think_ we beat destiny? Or an arbiter of fate, at least.”

“Huh.” Zack blinked. “So…what, we can decide our own fates now?”

“ _I’m_ going after Sephiroth,” Cloud said immediately. The others nodded in agreement. “I’ve heard enough howling for a lifetime.”

Zack didn’t say anything for a moment. Cloud could feel there was a tenseness in his friend.

“No way in _hell_ are you taking this guy on alone,” Zack said. “If you fought him before you got _here,_ he let you off easy. You’re gonna need help.”

“Zack—”

“Aerith, let me do this. Please. I don’t want to see you guys get stabbed like a shish kabob against this guy.”

Cloud winced at the mental image, remembering where Sephiroth had stabbed him, before he’d used the leverage against him and thrown Sephiroth off his own sword and into the reactor.

“I’m gonna need a sword, though.”

Cloud didn’t hesitate. His hand was on the Buster Sword’s hilt and handing it over to Zack without a second thought.

“Cloud, I can’t—”

“Take it,” Cloud said flatly. “It’s yours, anyway. I’ve got others.”

Zack stared at Cloud. “I…you sure?”

Cloud nodded. The Buster Sword had been Zack’s, first. If Cloud didn’t need to be Zack’s living legacy since Zack was _still alive,_ it made sense to him.

Besides, he’d picked up other weapons at Tifa’s insistence. They were stacked up behind the tent Aerith had pulled out of nowhere.

Zack took the sword with an expression of reverence, holding it upward with both hands before resting his head against it. To Cloud, it almost looked like he action was practiced, familiar. Maybe not familiar to _Cloud,_ but familiar to Zack.

“Thanks, buddy. Looks like you took good care of it.” Zack rested the blade across his lap.

Cloud nodded.

“Wait – the sword’s _yours?”_ Barret looked between the two of them.

“Yeah? It’s one of a kind.” Zack rested his hands on the blade. “I gave it to Cloud because…well, it doesn’t really matter now.”

It really didn’t, no. Zack was alive, and Cloud was _extremely_ glad for that. He could deal with using one of the other swords he’d picked up in Midgar.

“So, what’s the plan now?” Zack was grinning again. “You wanna go after Sephiroth, right? I’ve gotta pay him back for what happened in Nibelheim. I know my way around the continent pretty well, too – you’re not gonna find anyone as well-traveled as me! Unless you count Cloud, but he doesn’t really remember the trek here that well. Mako poisoning and all.”

“Don’t speak for me,” Cloud grumbled.

“Oh, yeah? Do you remember any of it then?”

Just the green haze of mako poisoning, but Cloud wasn’t about to say _that._

Zack laughed to himself, not seemingly bothered by this. “Hey, we’re gonna be fine. I was starting to think about leaving Kalm, anyway. You guys don’t mind if I tag along, do you?”

“Not at all!” Aerith responded immediately. Barret grumbled something, but he didn’t argue – especially when Tifa shot him a pointed glare. “Just…don’t go running off like that again, okay? I don’t want to have you disappear again.”

“No worries, Aerith.” Zack gave a loose salute. “I think Cloud’s got that handled.”

He tugged on Cloud’s arm, which only made Cloud’s hug tighten.

“Come on, Spikey, I’m not going anywhere, I promise. Besides, you guys all look bushed, and I actually slept last night. How about I keep watch for a bit and you all take a nap or something? Pretty sure Cloud’s drifting already.”

Cloud wanted to deny that he wasn’t, but the position he’d put himself in was familiar and comfortable. Couple that with the terrible round of headaches he’d just had and…well. He didn’t exactly have much strength left to argue.

“No way in _hell_ am I sleepin’,” Barret said sourly.

Zack shrugged the shoulder Cloud wasn’t leaning against. “Your choice, man. I’m not gonna stop you.” He patted Cloud on the shoulder. “Sleep, Spikey. You look like a dead man walking.”

“S’do you.” Cloud’s words slurred, the fight from last night catching up with him.

Zack snorted. “Touche. But I don’t have bags under my eyes big enough for my sword.”

Cloud snorted, but he found he didn’t have much strength to argue against his friend. Combination of Tifa’s good food and having Zack back, probably, but he wasn’t in a mood to try and figure that out.

Instead, Cloud let himself drift, taking advantage of the familiar pillow.

That didn’t mean he didn’t hear a few last words, however.

“How the hell’d you convince him to _do_ that?”

“It’s not the first time.” Zack’s cheery tone was subdued slightly, and it seemed to be enough for Barret. “I’m a safe space, I guess. You guys relax. I can keep an eye out like this.”

Cloud knew Zack could, somehow. That nine-month trek and the years before were nothing but mako-green, but with Zack’s presence…

…somewhere, within himself, that unknown, hollow corner of his mind felt a little more whole.


End file.
